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Katherine Whitney, a senior outside hitter for the Rams in 2006, finished school in December and decided to try playing overseas. She was able to get a contract with Holte, a team just outside of Copenhagen Denmark.

The following journal chronicles her experience in Denmark for all of our fans

April 2, 2007

Hi everyone!

So we're coming to the end of the season, but that takes a lot longer than it sounds. We played our last match yesterday for ranking going into the semifinals. We won, and so are second going into it (there was a three way tie for first). The semifinals and finals are the best of three matches played some during the week and some on the weekends. We'll be playing the same team we beat to take second and their pretty good, so we'll see what happens. They just got two more Americans on their team for the end of the season, so now they have three Americans who all start. Its pretty funny, actually, when we play them the whole gym is speaking English--you'd think you were back in the states...

A few weeks ago I started teaching at a high school near the club where I play.
It's an English class, and the teacher is one of the founders of our club. He heard I was playing here, so asked me to help with the section they are studying this term -- Guns, Violence, and the Media.

I'm really enjoying it. It's so interesting -- Denmark has completely different views on gun control and violence. Guns are illegal (except hunting rifles, which are even hard to get) and people don't have the right to protect themselves.

It's a really big issue right now, because when I first got here in January, some robbers broke into this guy's shop and threatened him and his daughter with guns.

The shopkeeper had an illegal gun because this had happened to him before, and he shot and injured one of the robbers. Now the shopkeeper is facing a sentence longer than the people trying to rob him!

He's still waiting to go on trial, and it seems like people are for the most part in favor of him getting off without retribution, but I don't know whether or not the law will change.

Obviously, this is way different than the states where we believe that the right to bear arms will help protect us. People here are afraid that if this guy gets off and people are allowed to defend themselves with guns, that violence in society will only increase.

It's really interesting talking to these kids about it, and they are all very interested in why America has so many problems with gun violence.

We watched Bowling for Columbine to start the section and they couldn't believe it (definitely not the best portrayal of America, but it raises some good issues).

It really makes you think to talk about this stuff with people who aren't familiar with our laws and culture in the states. Hmmm...

Anyway, I'll keep you guys updated on how we're doing in the finals, and before I know it I'll be home!